It was back in 2021, when Kurt Busch was offered to drive for 23XI Racing, after Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin joined forces to launch their new NASCAR operation.
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By that time, Busch had bagged 33 Cup wins and one Cup championship, and his future employers banked on that same experience to elevate the new team’s efforts. Yet the element that pushed Busch over the edge was something Jordan told him early on, instead of being hired by one of the world’s greatest sporting icons.
While Hamlin had been quite bullish about Busch’s arrival in the team, noting that Kurt would bring a wealth of knowledge and a championship mindset that could make the team stronger and more competitive each week, Jordan’s approach was different. In a recent NASCAR video, as Busch reflected on notable moments from his career in the lead-up to his 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction, he recalled what MJ told him shortly after he signed.
Busch said, “MJ’s so cool. There’s only a few people in the world that have that aura. When I first signed on to race for him, I was a bit nervous. Holy crap, here he is. And when he shakes my hand, it was like three hand sizes of mine. I’m like, ‘Whoa!'”
Busch also remembered Jordan telling him, “Why we want to hire you to start this second car at 23XI cuz you race like I played the game of basketball. You race from your heart.” Busch then added, “I about melted. It defined my 30 years out on the racetrack. That’s who I am. I raced from here,” while pointing toward his chest.
Busch finally made 20 starts for 23XI Racing and bagged a win for the team at Kansas, and finished five races in the top five at Phoenix, Atlanta, Gateway, and Nashville Superspeedway during the 2022 season. However, at Pocono, he was not medically cleared after a qualifying crash and missed the remainder of the year.
From that moment forward, he never returned to a NASCAR cockpit. In October 2022, he announced he would step away from full-time racing in 2023 with the possibility of part-time appearances.
Despite no longer competing, Busch has remained tied to 23XI Racing to some extent. In October 2025, as the organization celebrated its fifth anniversary, Busch sent a message to the team expressing pride in helping build the No. 45 program and offering encouragement with the phrase “let’s keep it going” as the team was still in the middle of the legal dispute with NASCAR at the time.
